U.S. patent number 7,254,641 [Application Number 09/774,944] was granted by the patent office on 2007-08-07 for digital multimedia contact center with tier escalation and deescalation in response to changed criteria.
This patent grant is currently assigned to Intervoice, Inc.. Invention is credited to Justin Broughton, Ivan Covdy, Roy Ho, Carl Raymond Kowalski, D. Thompson McCalmont, Kevin J. McPartlan, Elizabeth Rodgers, Robert S. Rodgers, Art Stine.
United States Patent |
7,254,641 |
Broughton , et al. |
August 7, 2007 |
Digital multimedia contact center with tier escalation and
deescalation in response to changed criteria
Abstract
A tiered service model for a digital multimedia contact center
assigns an entering contact to an initial service tier based on
routing criteria for the contact and may escalate or de-escalate
the contact to a different service tier if the routing criteria
changes. The routing criteria is initially determined based on a
media type associated with the contact. The digital multimedia
contact center contains a set of media routers, each of which
passes a contact of a particular media type to a workflow engine
which executes workflows to direct the processing of contacts at
service tiers that require agent activity. Agents are allocated to
contacts by a dynamic automate contact distributor and the
appropriate media router is used to route the contact to an agent.
The workflow engine also executes workflows for agents to control
the allocation of agents to contacts.
Inventors: |
Broughton; Justin (Fresno,
CA), McPartlan; Kevin J. (Saratoga, CA), Rodgers;
Elizabeth (San Jose, CA), Rodgers; Robert S. (San Jose,
CA), Covdy; Ivan (San Jose, CA), Ho; Roy (San Jose,
CA), Kowalski; Carl Raymond (Fremont, CA), McCalmont; D.
Thompson (San Jose, CA), Stine; Art (Sunnyvale, CA) |
Assignee: |
Intervoice, Inc. (Dallas,
TX)
|
Family
ID: |
25102788 |
Appl.
No.: |
09/774,944 |
Filed: |
January 30, 2001 |
Prior Publication Data
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|
|
Document
Identifier |
Publication Date |
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US 20030018702 A1 |
Jan 23, 2003 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
709/240;
379/266.01; 709/242 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H04M
3/523 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
H04M
3/00 (20060101); G06F 15/173 (20060101) |
Field of
Search: |
;709/204,206,244
;370/260,352,356,389,392
;379/265.01,265.05,265.06,265.09,265.13 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Foreign Patent Documents
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1 016 998 |
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May 2000 |
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EP |
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1 032 188 |
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Aug 2000 |
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EP |
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11-234408 |
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Aug 1999 |
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JP |
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11-266306 |
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Sep 1999 |
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JP |
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2000-244568 |
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Sep 2000 |
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JP |
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WO 99/65214 |
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Dec 1999 |
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WO |
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WO 01/35601 |
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May 2001 |
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WO |
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WO 01/61529 |
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Aug 2001 |
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WO |
|
Other References
Steul, D., "Redefining the call center: customer service on the
Internet", Alcatel Telecommunications Review (France), No. 1, p.
38-42, 2000. cited by examiner .
Busemann, Stephan et al.,"Message classification in the call
center", ACM Applied Natural Language Conferences, p. 158-165,
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Reasoner, Karen,"The modernization of a call center", ACM SIGUCCS,
p. 270-273, Nov. 2000. cited by examiner .
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.COPYRGT.Interactive Intelligence, Inc., Apr. 6, 2001, 31 pages.
cited by other .
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Available: http://www.cosmocom.com/ProductInfo/techover.htm, 3
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CTI Magazine, Oct. 1997, Available:
http://www.inin.com/news/presscoverage.asp?id=14, 9 pages. cited by
other .
"Signaling Gateway CX6100-SG", Haraski et al., pp. 138-142, NEC Res
& Develop., vol. 42, No. 2., Apr. 2001. cited by other .
"Media Gateway CX3200", Naoki Satoh et al., pp. 133-137, NEC Res
& Develop., vol. 42, No. 2, Apr. 2001. cited by other .
Canadian Office Action cited prior art (3 pages) for 2,434,922
dated Sep. 2006. cited by other .
European Search Report (2 pages) for EPA 00 30 0571 dated Jun.
2000. cited by other .
Japanese Office Action (English Language Translation) issued for JP
2002-564925, dated Dec. 19, 2006, 5 pages. cited by other.
|
Primary Examiner: Winder; Patrice L.
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Fulbright & Jaworski LLP
Claims
What is claimed is:
1. A computerized method for determining a service tier for a
contact in a digital multimedia contact center, each tier having a
queue, the method comprising: determining an initial service tier
for the contact based on routing criteria for the contact and
placing the contact into the queue for that tier; de-escalating the
contact to a lower service tier if a change in the routing criteria
does not satisfy pre-defined criteria for the initial service tier
and placing the contact into the queue for the lower service tier;
and escalating the contract to a higher service tier if a change in
the routing criteria satisfies pre-defined criteria for the higher
service tier and placing the contact into the queue for the higher
service tier.
2. The computerized method of claim 1 further comprising initially
determining the routing criteria based on a media type associated
with the contact.
3. The computerized method of claim 1 further comprising changing
the routing criteria through a workflow for the contact.
4. The computerized method of claim 1 further comprising changing
the routing criteria based on contact activity.
5. A computer-readable medium comprising a storage device, having
computer-executable instructions comprising: receiving a contact
and assigning to a queue of an initial service tier for the contact
in a digital multimedia contact center based on routing criteria
for the contact, wherein each tier has a queue; de-escalating the
contact to a lower service tier if a change in the routing criteria
does not satisfy pre-defined criteria for the initial service tier
and placing the contact into the queue for the lower service tier;
and escalating the contract to a higher service tier if a changer
in the routing criteria satisfies pre-defined criteria for the
higher service tier and placing the contact into the queue for the
higher service tier.
6. The computer-readable medium of claim 5 having further
computer-executable instructions comprising: initially determining
the routing criteria based on a media type associated with the
contact.
7. The computer-readable medium of claim 5 having further
computer-executable instructions comprising changing the routing
criteria through a workflow for the contact.
8. The computer-readable medium of claim 5 having further
computer-executable instructions comprising changing the routing
criteria based on contact activity.
9. A computer system comprising: a processing unit; a memory
coupled to the processing unit through a bus; and a service tiering
process executed from the memory to cause the processing unit to
determine an initial service tier having a queue for a contact in a
digital multimedia contact center based on routing criteria for the
contact, wherein each tier has a queue, to de-escalating the
contact to a lower service tier if a change in the routing criteria
does not satisfy pre-defined criteria for the initial service tier
and placing the contact into the queue for the lower service tier,
and to escalate the contract to a higher service tier if a change
in the routing criteria satisfies pre-defined criteria for the
higher service tier and placing the contact into the queue for the
higher service tier.
10. The computer system of claim 9, wherein the service tiering
process further causes the processing unit to initially determine
the routing criteria based on a media type associated with the
contact.
11. The computer system of claim 9, wherein the service tiering
process further causes the processing unit to change the routing
criteria through execution of a workflow for the contact.
12. The computer system of claim 9, wherein the service tiering
process further causes the processing unit to change the routing
criteria based on contact activity.
Description
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to the operations of a customer
contact center, and more particularly to a contact center that
processes contacts having different media types.
COPYRIGHT NOTICE/PERMISSION
A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains
material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright
owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of
the patent document or the patent disclosure as it appears in the
Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise
reserves all copyright rights whatsoever. The following notice
applies to the software and data as described below and in the
drawings hereto: Copyright.RTM. 1999, NUASIS Corporation, All
Rights Reserved.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Call centers are typically used by organizations to service
customers. Traditionally, customers called into a call center using
POTS (plain old telephone service) but more and more organizations
are implementing other types of media access such as email, voice
mail, Web browsing, etc. to expand the ways by which their
customers may contact them. Current attempts to integrate the
different media into a single call center have proved ineffective
because of the disparate nature of the different media types. For
example, telephone calls usually average a few hundred a day, while
emails often run into thousands a day, and daily hits on a Web site
frequently number hundreds of thousands. Additionally, the response
time expected by the customer varied depending on the media type
used.
One approach processes a contact based on its media type. This
approach ignores the fact that the same media type can be used for
different types of service. For example, a customer that calls a
manned help line requires different handling than a customer
calling an interactive voice response system. Another approach is
to handle all contacts identically, regardless of media type. This
approach fails to account for the different number of contacts and
different expected response times for a customer independent of the
various media types. Thus, a call center that processes all calls
as requiring an immediate response quickly becomes overloaded with
emails. Furthermore, both of these approaches involve extensive
modifications to the systems that underlie the call center, such as
the email system, the telephony system, etc., so that the many of
the original features and benefits of the underlying systems are
lost. Additionally, while some previous implementations appear to
integrate analog contacts, such as voice calls, and digital
contacts, such as email, the actual processing of the two types of
contacts is separated.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The above-mentioned shortcomings, disadvantages and problems are
addressed by the present invention, which will be understood by
reading and studying the following specification.
A tiered service model for a digital multimedia contact center
assigns an entering contact to an initial service tier based on
routing criteria for the contact and may escalate or de-escalate
the contact to a different service tier if the routing criteria
changes. The routing criteria is initially determined based on a
media type associated with the contact. The digital multimedia
contact center contains a set of media routers, each of which
passes a contact of a particular type to a workflow engine. The
workflow engine starts a workflow for the contact and calls a
dynamic automatic contact distributor to allocate an agent to the
contact if the service tier of the contact requires agent activity.
The workflow engine returns an identifier for the allocated agent
to the media router, which then routes the contact to an agent
desktop for the agent. The agent desktop presents the contact to
the agent for processing. The workflow engine also creates a
workflow for an agent to control the allocation of the agent to
contacts.
The digital multimedia contact center operates in conjunction with
existing systems dedicated to a particular media type without
requiring major modifications to those systems, thus leveraging the
functionality of the existing systems. For example, emails are
generally handled at one service tier by the standard operations of
a conventional email system unless specially marked in the email
system as having been escalated to a higher service tier.
Similarly, voice calls are initially assigned to a high service
tier for handling by an agent but can be de-escalated to a lower
service tier and routed to an existing interactive voice response
system if appropriate. Thus, the digital multimedia contact center
handles contacts in accordance with the contact's required level of
service instead of relying solely on the media type to determine
the necessary processing. Furthermore, the digital multimedia
contact center implements the most appropriate processing
methodology for the number of contacts expected at each service
tier.
The present invention describes systems, clients, servers, methods,
and computer-readable media of varying scope. In addition to the
aspects and advantages of the present invention described in this
summary, further aspects and advantages of the invention will
become apparent by reference to the drawings and by reading the
detailed description that follows.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a three-tiered service model for a
digital multimedia contact center of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment of a system
architecture underlying the digital multimedia contact center model
shown in FIG. 1;
FIGS. 3A C are diagrams illustrating the processing of
media-specific contacts within the architecture of the digital
multimedia contact center shown in FIG. 2;
FIGS. 4A C are flowcharts of method to be performed by voice
components in the embodiment of the digital multimedia contact
center shown in FIG. 2;
FIGS. 5A C are flowcharts of method to be performed by escalated
email components in the embodiment of the digital multimedia
contact center shown in FIG. 2;
FIGS. 6A C are flowcharts of method to be performed by
collaboration components in the embodiment of the digital
multimedia contact center shown in FIG. 2;
FIGS. 7A C are flowcharts of method to be performed by agent
components in the embodiment of the digital multimedia contact
center shown in FIG. 2;
FIG. 8A is a diagram of a contact detail data structure for use in
an implementation of the invention;
FIG. 8B is a diagram of an agent data structure for use in an
implementation of the invention;
FIG. 9A is a diagram of a workflow engine for use in an
implementation of the invention;
FIG. 9B is a diagram of an asynchronous workflow executed by the
workflow engine of FIG. 9A;
FIG. 10A is a diagram of one embodiment of an operating environment
suitable for practicing the present invention; and
FIG. 10B is a diagram of one embodiment of a computer system
suitable for use in the operating environment of FIG. 10A.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
In the following detailed description of embodiments of the
invention, reference is made to the accompanying drawings in which
like references indicate similar elements, and in which is shown by
way of illustration specific embodiments in which the invention may
be practiced. These embodiments are described in sufficient detail
to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention, and
it is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and
that logical, mechanical, electrical, functional and other changes
may be made without departing from the scope of the present
invention. The following detailed description is, therefore, not to
be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope of the present
invention is defined only by the appended claims.
The detailed description is divided into four sections and a
conclusion. In the first section, a system level overview of the
invention is presented. In the second section, methods for an
embodiment of the invention are described with reference to
flowcharts. In the third section, a particular Internet Contact
Center (iCC) implementation of the invention is described. In the
final section, an operating environment in conjunction with which
embodiments of the invention may be practiced is presented.
System Level Overview
A system level overview of the operation of an embodiment of the
invention is described by reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.
FIG. 1 illustrates a three-tiered service model 100 for a digital
multimedia contact center. As shown, there are three service tiers:
self-service tier 101, deferred service tier 103, and immediate
assistance tier 105. Contacts accessing the center at the
self-service tier 101 do not require the assistance of an agent at
the contact center, while contacts being serviced at the deferred
tier 103 and the intermediate assistance tier 105 do require agent
activity. A contact accessing the center at deferred tier 103 is
presented to an agent in a "pull" model as a background task on the
agent's computer desktop. An agent pulls a deferred contact for
processing when there are no immediate assistance contacts to
process. A contact at the immediate assistance tier 105 is
presented in a "push" model as a foreground task. One immediate
assistance contact is pushed to the agent's desk at any one time
and in such a way that it is obvious to the agent that this contact
must be handled immediately. As a particular contact is presented,
any related customer information is also shown. The components for
the different tiers are designed to handle different magnitudes of
contacts. The self-service tier components will process orders of
magnitude more contacts than the deferred tier components, which
will process orders of magnitude more contacts than the immediate
assistance tier components.
A contact entering the contact center is initially assigned to one
of the three tiers based on the type of media used by the contact
in accessing the contact center. The embodiment shown in FIG. 1 is
further described with reference to three media types: voice calls,
emails, and World Wide Web, although the invention is not so
limited. Voice calls are initially routed to the immediate
assistance tier 103, emails are initially routed to the deferred
tier 102, and Web contacts are initially routed to the self-service
tier 101. Subsequent routing may be performed that escalates or
de-escalates the contact to another tier (shown as arrows in FIG.
1). The subsequent routing can be based on one or more routing
criteria, including factors defined by the contact center owner or
subscriber, such as priority, access phone numbers, and time-out
periods, and environmental factors such as contact activity. The
routing criteria associated with a contact may change as the
various components in the contact center process the contact. For
example, if the routing criteria of a contact passes a pre-defined
threshold, the contact may be escalated or de-escalated. Thus, an
email is escalated (arrow 111) to the immediate assistance tier 103
if it has not been answered when a "time-to-reply" period elapses.
A voice call is initially routed to the immediate assistance tier
103 but is de-escalated (arrow 115) to the deferred tier 103 if the
caller chooses to leave voice-mail, or de-escalated (arrow 113) to
the self service tier 103 if the contact is sent to an interactive
voice response (IVR) system for more processing. A self service Web
contact can be escalated (arrow 107) into the immediate assistance
tier 103 by through "Click to Chat" or "Click to Talk" buttons
available on the Web site, or escalated (arrow 109) to the deferred
tier 103 if the contact chooses to send an email instead. Details
of the escalation and de-escalation of each media type is described
in more detail in conjunction with the flowcharts in the next
section. Furthermore, although the exemplary embodiments focus on
voice, email, and Web contacts for ease in understanding, it will
be appreciated that the invention encompasses all potential analog
and digital media types, including fax, "faxback," video, etc., in
addition to being extensible to other WANs and to LANs. It will
also be appreciated that the contact is not limited by its initial
media type so, for example, the contact and agent in a
collaboration session could be also taking by phone, an email
message could generate a return fax or phone call, or the
expiration of a time-out on a collaboration request might generate
an email message to the contact promising a response within a set
time period.
The three-tier service model 100 illustrated in FIG. 1 operates
within a digital multimedia contact system, one embodiment of which
is shown in FIG. 2. The system architecture for contact center 200
is based on a workflow engine 201 that directs the activities of
the agents in the center using workflow steps. A contact workflow
is initiated by events that are routed into one of a set of
workflow subsystems 205 by one of a set of media routers 221. Each
media router 221 and each corresponding workflow subsystem 205 are
dedicated to a contact media type. An agent workflow is initiated
by events routed into an agent subsystem 219 by an agent desktop
component 229. Events that trigger a workflow include a new call
arriving at the contact center or an agent logging in. The workflow
for a contact remains active until the contact is terminated; the
workflow for an agent remains active until the agent logs out of
the contact center 200.
The workflows are executed by workflow logic 207. Events are passed
between the workflow logic 207 and the workflow subsystems 205 by a
message passing layer 203. The events can also modify the execution
flow of existing contact or agent workflows.
When executed by the workflow logic 207, a workflow for an
immediate assistance contact causes a dynamic ACD (automatic
contact distributor) 241 to allocate an agent to the contact. The
allocation is also reflected in the agent's workflow. The operation
of the dynamic ACD 241 is described in further detail below.
A contact coming into the contact center 200 is initially
classified in accordance with a set of previously defined
classifications, e.g., Sales, Customer Service, Support, etc., by
the appropriate workflow subsystem 205. Additional information is
also gathered to determine the optimal routing of the contact.
Information that narrows down the set of agents to which a contact
can be routed is referred to as "contact requirements." Examples of
contact requirements include product knowledge, language fluency,
and previous communication with the contact (each contact is
considered a new one). Origin and destination information now is
consistently collected from all media types, such as calling phone
number and called phone number for voice calls. Subject information
may also be collected from voice contacts based on responses to IVR
menu options.
A voice router 223 provides an interface between a voice subsystem
213 and a conventional digital telephony system (voice server 222),
such as the DOT (Distributed Open Telephony) server from Tundo
Corporation that handles IP (Internet Protocol) calls. The voice
subsystem 213 starts a workflow when a call arrives at the contact
center 200 and communicates a request to the voice server 222 to
redirect the call to an agent (or to voice mail or IVR) as
determined by the workflow. The voice server 222 receives digital
voice calls (referred to as voice-over-IP or VoIP) directly from a
digital wide-area network (WAN) 220, such as the Internet, or via a
gateway 251, such as the Tundo Gateway, that converts analog voice
calls 253 to VoIP calls. The gateway 251 also converts VoIP calls
from the digital telephony system 222 into analog voice signals for
transmission back to the caller.
A conventional email system (email server 226), such as the Cisco
Email Manager from Cisco Systems, processes deferred contacts
received from the WAN 220. The email system uses its own in-line
rules engine for processing incoming email and placing it into
mailboxes to be accessed by the agents as background tasks. The
agents retrieve deferred contacts from these mailboxes explicitly.
An email escalator 227 provides an interface between an email
subsystem 217 and the conventional email system for emails that are
escalated from deferred to immediate assistance. The email
escalator 227 periodically reviews the mailboxes for pending emails
that meet per-determined criteria for escalation, such as
time-to-reply or customer value parameters. It then collects
information about the email (customer, priority etc.) and passes
this to the email subsystem 217. In one embodiment, the emails are
evaluated in chronological order and the emails that meet the
escalation criteria are further broken down by classification and
within a particular classification, the email is passed to the
email subsystem 217 on a first-in, first-out basis.
The email subsystem 217 determines if the contact is entitled to be
escalated to an immediate assistance contact based on the contact
information and starts a contact workflow if it is. When the
workflow succeeds in routing the email to an agent, the agent
address is returned to the email escalator 227, which passes it to
the email subsystem 217 for actual routing to the agent. In an
embodiment in which voice mail is routed to an agent as an audio
attachment to an email, the email escalator 227 also serves to
escalate voice mails to the immediate assistance tier if
appropriate.
A conventional Web server 224 processes self-service contacts that
originate from the WAN 220. Such a server can offer browsing and
searching capabilities for a knowledge base, or a set of FAQs
(frequently asked questions). A collaboration router 225 provides
an interface between a collaboration subsystem 215 and a
conventional collaboration system, such as the Cisco Collaboration
Server from Cisco Systems, that executes on, or in conjunction
with, the Web server 224. Web pages on the Web server 224 are
modified to include "Click to Chat/Talk" buttons to connect to the
collaboration system. When the button is clicked by a Web contact,
the collaboration system sends an event to the collaboration router
225, which in turns sends an event to the collaboration subsystem
215. The collaboration subsystem 215 determines if the contact is
entitled to be escalated to an immediate assistance contact and
initiates a contact workflow if so. Once the collaboration request
has been assigned to an agent, the agent address is passed back to
the collaboration router 225 for actual routing. Other agents may
be included in the collaboration session as necessary.
An agent subsystem 219 provides an interface between one or more
agent desktops 229 and the workflow logic 207 for agent events.
When notified of an agent login by the corresponding agent desktop
229, the agent subsystem 219 validates the agent before starting an
agent workflow that describe the agent's work process until the
agent logs out. The agent desktop 229 notifies the agent subsystem
219 of all agent state changes. The agent subsystem 219 is also
responsible for watching the agent's phones for outbound call
events. It passes this information to the workflow logic 207 to
ensure the agent state is changed to "busy." In addition, when an
agent initiates a call, the agent subsystem 219 sends an "outbound
call" event to the agent's workflow so that agent-initiated
contacts can be tracked.
The agent desktop 229 controls the presentation of tasks on an
agent's desktop. The tasks originate from the multiple conventional
systems with which the contact center 200 interfaces as previously
described, as well as from the workflow engine 201. Each of the
conventional systems has its own user interface. Monitoring tools
may also be available to certain agents, such as those providing
statistics on the operation of the contact center and individual
agents. The agent desktop 229 integrates the separate user
interfaces into a single coherent interface that presents the agent
with immediate assistance contacts as foreground tasks and deferred
contacts as background tasks. Thus, for example, the foreground
mode integrates the telephony interface, the collaboration
interface, and the email interface (for escalated emails).
Similarly, the background mode integrates the email interface (for
non-escalated emails and other deferred contacts, such as voice
mail, fax, forms, etc.) and the monitoring tools, for example. The
agent desktop 229 also integrates with any existing customer
relation management application to provide customer information to
the agent for the foreground and background tasks. The connections
between the agent desktops 229 and the conventional systems 222,
224, 226 are not shown in FIG. 2 for clarity in illustration.
In an alternate embodiment not shown, the agent desktops 229 do not
communicate directly to the agent subsystem 219 but are managed
through a desktop manager component that handles concurrent
requests from desktops and routes responses. To concurrently handle
multiple desktops, a client portion of the desktop manager executes
within each agent desktop component and communicates with a server
portion that queues events arriving from the agent subsystem 219
and sends them to the appropriate desktop in response to polls from
the desktops. Executing the server portion of the desktop manager
on a machine separate from that executing the agent subsystem,
provides additional scaling capabilities to the contact center.
The relationship among the components of the contact center 200
described so far is most easily understood through an example. When
an analog voice call 253 is received by the gateway 251, it is
converted to a VoIP call and directed by the voice server 222 to a
voice media router 223. The voice media router 223 informs the
voice subsystem 213 of the incoming contact and the voice subsystem
213 creates a workflow for the contact. Assuming the contact is to
remain at the immediate assistance tier 103, the workflow requests
the dynamic ACD 241 allocate an agent to the contact. The dynamic
ACD 241 passes the agent information back to the voice subsystem
213, which then sends the agent and contact information to the
voice router 223. The voice router 223, in turn, sends the
information to the voice server 222 for routing. The voice server
222 transfers the contact to the appropriate agent desktop 229 as a
foreground task.
Returning now to FIG. 2, the workflow engine 201 also contains a
database 231 of contact 233 and agent records 235. A database
unification layer 261 combines the information in the database 231
and information maintained by the voice 222, Web 224, and email 226
servers into a coherent view of the contact center. The contact and
agent workflows query and update the database 231 through a
database subsystem 211 that converts workflow requests into calls
for the database unification layer 261. In an alternate embodiment
not shown in FIG. 2, the contact and agent workflows query the
database unification layer 261 directly. In yet another alternate
embodiment, the database unification layer is incorporated into the
database subsystem 211.
The database unification layer 261 has access to, and is accessible
by, all the other components of the contact center to allow
reporting and analysis of the activities of the contact center
regardless of the media type used by the contacts. The connections
between the database unification layer 261 and the other components
are not shown in FIG. 2 for clarity in illustration. The
information can be retrieved through the database unification layer
261 by a monitoring tool (not shown) to graphically and/or
numerically illustrate the state of the contact center (number of
contacts awaiting service, how many agents are on break, etc.). For
instance, the monitoring tool may display the number of unserviced
contacts broken down by classification. Additionally, a
conventional reporting application can be employed to obtain
information through the database unification layer 261 for
standardized reports. Agents, supervisors and managers may each
have access to a set of such reports to gauge the efficiency of the
contact center, a group, or individual agent. The database
unification layer 261 also provides for the collection of billing
information and for the tracking of contacts through the contact
center, both across media types.
In the embodiment shown in FIG. 2, the dynamic ACD 241 uses
unordered lists of waiting contacts 237 and available agents 239 to
match a contact with an agent. The workflow engine 201 causes the
dynamic ACD 241 to create and manage the unordered lists of
contacts 237 and agents 239. Although shown as separate from the
database 231 in FIG. 2, it will be appreciated that the unordered
lists 237, 239 may be database structures that are managed by the
database subsystem 211 as instructed by the workflow engine 201 and
the dynamic ACD 241.
As previously described, contact requirements (e.g., product
knowledge, language fluency, previous communication) are used to
determine the set of agents to which a contact can be routed.
Information used to decide the appropriateness of an agent within
the set is referred to as "agent attributes" and may include such
parameters as seniority and length of time waiting for a contact.
Furthermore, agents may be dedicated to one or more contact
classifications. When an immediate assistance contact requests an
agent, the dynamic ACD 241 searches for an appropriate agent from
the list 239 of available agents by filtering the agents against
the contact classification and any requirements, and prioritizes
the resulting agents according to their attributes. If an agent is
available, the dynamic ACD 241 passes the information for the agent
back to the appropriate subsystem to route the contact to the agent
and removes the agent from the available agent list 239. If no
appropriate agent is available, the contact is entered into the
waiting contact list 237 until an appropriate agent becomes
available to take the contact. Similarly, when an agent requests a
contact, the waiting contact list 237 is filtered by classification
and "agent requirements" (e.g., media type, territory) and
prioritized according to contact attributes such as time in queue
and business value. The matching process is invoked by a step in
the contact workflow for an immediate assistance contact or in the
agent workflow for an available agent as explained further
below.
As illustrated in FIG. 2, there may be multiple instances of each
of the media routers 221. There is also an instance of the agent
desktop 229 running on each agent workstation in the contact
center. Although only a single set of workflow subsystems 205 is
shown, it will be appreciated that workflow engine 201 may contain
multiple instances of one or more of the workflow subsystems 205
depending on workload. Additionally, multiple workflow engines 201
may be present within a contact center 200.
Furthermore, the architecture permits distribution of the various
components among multiple computers, thus enabling scalability of
the contact center 200. As described previously, each component
provides services for other components. For instance, the dynamic
ACD 241 provides an agent allocation service and the collaboration
subsystem 215 provides a collaboration workflow service. In one
embodiment, a service manager (not shown) provides a central
location for registration and discovery of the contact center
service providers. When a component needs a service (such as the
initialization of a workflow), it calls the service manager to find
the location of that service. The service manager reviews a list of
all registered providers of that service and selects the
appropriate providers (e.g., shortest routing to requester).
Finally it chooses the best provider based on the unused capacity
of each service. Thus, the contact center 200 may continue to start
services on new or existing machines as necessary to deal with its
workload.
The system level overview of the operation of an embodiment of the
invention has been described in this section of the detailed
description. A tiered service model that allows the escalation and
de-escalation of a contact has been described, along with its
operation within a digital multimedia contact center. The digital
multimedia contact center handles contacts in accordance with the
contact's required level of service instead of relying solely on
the media type to determine the necessary processing. Because
different levels of service incur different quantities of contacts,
different processing methodologies are appropriate within the
contact center. Thus, workflows are used to handle immediate
assistance contacts regardless of media type because a workflow
engine excels at processing relatively small numbers of contacts in
real-time. A workflow engine also gives the subscriber fine-grained
control over the handling of the high priority contacts that
require immediate assistance. On the other hand, deferred contacts
number least an order of magnitude greater than immediate
assistance contacts and are handled most efficiently through an
inline rule engine such as commonly implemented in an email (and/or
voice mail) system. Finally, because the greatest number of
contacts are self-service contacts which require no agent
intervention, processing techniques such as interactive voice
response, automatic email response, and knowledge base/FAQ logic on
Web servers are used.
While the invention is not limited to any particular number of
service tiers, the invention has been described in terms of a three
tier model. The invention has further been described using an
example that mixes voice calls, emails, and Web contacts within the
same contact center but the invention is not so limited.
Additionally, the invention can be practiced with any underlying
architecture that allows the escalation and de-escalation of
contacts through a tiered service model.
Methods of Embodiments of the Invention
In the previous section, a system level overview of the operations
of embodiments of the invention was described. In this section, the
particular methods of one embodiment of the multimedia copy contact
center 200 are described in terms of computer software with
reference with a series of flowcharts and also a series of tier
diagrams. The flowcharts and tier diagrams are grouped according to
related components within the contact center. Thus, FIG. 3A and
flowcharts FIGS. 4A C illustrate the processing of the voice
components. FIG. 3B and flowcharts 5A C illustrate the processing
of the email escalator components. FIG. 3C and flowcharts 6A C
illustrate the processing of the collaboration components. The
processing of the agent components are illustrated only through
flowcharts in FIGS. 7A C.
The methods to be performed by a computer constitute computer
programs made up of computer-executable instructions. Describing
the methods by reference to a flowchart enables one skilled in the
art to develop such programs including such instructions to carry
out the methods on suitably configured computers (the processor of
the computer executing the instructions from computer-readable
media) acting as one or more of the components of the contact
center 200 in FIG. 2. The computer-executable instructions may be
written in a computer programming language or may be embodied in
firmware logic. If written in a programming language conforming to
a recognized standard, such instructions can be executed on a
variety of hardware platforms and for interface to a variety of
operating systems. In addition, the present invention is not
described with reference to any particular programming language. It
will be appreciated that a variety of programming languages may be
used to implement the teachings of the invention as described
herein. Furthermore, it is common in the art to speak of software,
in one form or another (e.g., program, procedure, process,
application, module, logic . . . ), as taking an action or causing
a result. Such expressions are merely a shorthand way of saying
that execution of the software by a computer causes the processor
of the computer to perform an action or a produce a result.
As shown in FIG. 3A, the voice components receive a voice phone
call and direct it to either an agent for immediate assistance 305
or to an interactive voice response system 301 for self-service. If
directed initially to an agent 305, the workflow engine may
de-escalate the contact (represented by arrow 311) to voice mail
303 if an agent is not available within a given period of time. In
addition, the workflow engine may de-escalate an immediate
assistance contact (represented by arrow 313) to interactive voice
response (IVR) 301 if the call priority is less than a
pre-determined amount or if the caller chooses self-service. A
self-service contact may be escalated by a voice mail manager
(represented by arrow 309) if the user chooses to leave voice mail.
Alternatively, when a self-service contact requests active
assistance from an agent, the workflow engine 201 and the dynamic
ACD 241 escalate the contact into the immediate assistance 305 as
represented by arrow 307. In an embodiment in which the voice mail
recording is attached to an email for subsequent processing by an
agent, the email with the voice mail attachment may be escalated
through a combination of the email escalator, the workflow engine,
and the dynamic ACD (represented by arrow 315) as explained below
in conjunction with FIGS. 3B and 5A C.
Turning now to FIGS. 4A C, the flowchart in FIG. 4A illustrates the
acts performed by the voice router 223 component when executing a
voice router method 400. The voice router method 400 receives
notification of a call from the voice server 222 (block 401). As
part of the information received from the gateway, the voice router
method 400 receives the originating and destination phone numbers
for the call, which it then sends to the voice subsystem 213 (block
403). The voice subsystem determines how to route the call, as will
be described further below, and sends the routing information to
the voice router. The voice router method 400 receives the routing
information (block 405) and then sends the routing information to
the voice server 222 for routing (block 407).
Turning now to FIG. 4B, a voice subsystem method 420 executed by
the voice subsystem component 213 is described. The voice subsystem
method 420 receives the originating and destination phone numbers
from the voice router (block 421), collects additional contact
information and creates a contact record for the contact (block
423). The voice subsystem method 420 then evokes an appropriate
voice workflow for the contact from the workflow engine 201 (block
425). One of the steps within the voice workflow will be the
determination of service tier, i.e., immediate assistance or a
self-service. Assuming the contact is a self-service contact, the
voice subsystem method 420 receives an IVR request from the voice
workflow at block 427 and then sends the IVR information to the
voice recorder at block 429 so that the voice router will route the
voice call to interactive voice response. On the other hand, if the
workflow determines that the contact is an immediate assistance
contact (block 431), the voice subsystem method 420 receives an
agent request from the workflow and requests an agent from the
dynamic ACD (block 433) in response. The dynamic ACD attempts to
match an agent with the contact as previously described. Assuming
no agent is available within a pre-determined period of time, the
workflow causes additional options to be presented to the contact.
In one instance, the contact may choose to be routed to voice mail,
at which point the workflow engine sends a remove-contact event to
the voice subsystem method 420, which is received at block 435. In
response, the voice subsystem method 420 requests that the contact
be removed from the list by the dynamic ACD (block 437). If,
however, an agent is available, the dynamic ACD sends the agent
information to the voice subsystem method 420, which in turn sends
the agent information to the voice router (block 439) so that the
voice router may appropriately route the contact to the chosen
agent. The voice subsystem method 420 continues to monitor the
contact to determine if the call is answered within a reasonable
period of time (block 441). If it is, then the voice subsystem
method 420 injects a handle-agent event into voice workflow at
block 443 so that the workflow will continue to handle the contact
as explained further below. Alternatively, if the call is not
answered, the voice subsystem method 420 returns to block 433 and
requests another agent from the dynamic ACD. In one embodiment, the
voice subsystem method 420 generates events which create and update
contact information regarding the voice call in the database
231.
FIG. 4C illustrates one embodiment of a voice workflow 450 that is
executed by the workflow logic 207 for a voice contact. When the
voice workflow 450 is initiated, it obtains contact information
through the IVR process at block 451 (shown in phantom) if it is
unable to determine the contact information from the originating
phone number. The contact is classified based on its information at
block 453. A determination is made as to the level of service to be
given to this contact (block 455). If the contact is not entitled
to immediate assistance, the voice workflow 450 requests the
contact be routed to the IVR system by the voice subsystem (block
477). The voice workflow 450 continues to monitor the contact
because a contact at the IVR self-service tier 301 may choose to
leave a voice mail or wait for an agent during the IVR session by
inputting certain digits. The input digits are captured as events
by the voice workflow 450 at block 479 and, depending on the event,
the voice workflow 450 escalates the contact to the deferred
assistance tier 303 by transferring the contact into the voice mail
system (block 471) or to the immediate assistance tier 305 by
requesting an agent for the contact (block 457). In one embodiment,
the email system manager serves as the voice mail manager and the
processing represented by block 471 is performed by the workflow.
The workflow records the contact's message, attaches the recording
to an email message addressed to a general mailbox, and sends the
email to the email subsystem 217 for transmission to the email
server 226.
If the contact is entitled to immediate assistance, an agent is
requested from the voice subsystem at block 457 and the caller is
put on hold to wait for events from the voice subsystem (block
459). If a handle-agent event is injected into the voice workflow
450 by the voice subsystem because an agent allocated to this
contact has answered the phone, the handle-agent event is detected
at block 461 and contact information is sent to the voice subsystem
(block 463). The voice workflow 450 then loops waiting for events
and responding appropriately to those events, including updating
the contact record, until the call is terminated as represented by
block 465. Once the call is terminated, the voice workflow 450
sends a left-session event to the agent subsystem at block 467 that
causes the agent to become available to receive a new contact.
If the contact chooses to be sent to voice mail prior to being
routed to an agent (block 461), the voice workflow 450 sends a
remove-contact event to the voice subsystem at block 469 to remove
the contact from the list managed by the dynamic ACD. The voice
workflow 4501 transfers the contact to the voice mail manager to
record the message (block 471) and terminates the call after the
messages is recorded (block 473). The voice mail is then sent to a
general mailbox to be acted upon by an agent at a later point
(block 475). In one embodiment, the voice message is attached to an
email message and placed into the mailbox by the email system.
Referring now to FIG. 3B and FIGS. 5A C, the email escalator
component of the multimedia contact center 200 is described. As
shown in FIG. 3B, a deferred email 323 is escalated into a high
priority email 325 through a combination of the email escalator,
the workflow engine, and the dynamic ACD (represented as arrow
327). Alternatively, an email message may be handled through an
automatic response option in the conventional email system and such
an email is de-escalated by the email server 226 (represented as
arrow 329) into an auto response contact 321. As automatic response
options are common in conventional email systems, the de-escalation
process is not further described.
FIG. 5A illustrates an email escalator method 500 performed by the
email escalator 227. The email escalator method 500 constantly
reviews the email system mailboxes or queues (block 501) to
determine if any pending emails should be escalated based on
factors previously described. If an email is to be escalated (block
503), it is placed in a high priority queue (block 505) and the
email information is sent to the email subsystem 217 at block 507.
As will be explained in conjunction with FIG. 5B, the email
subsystem 217 matches the contact to an agent and returns the agent
identifier, which is received by the email escalator method 500 at
block 509. The email escalator method 500 routes the email (via the
email system) to the agent desktop (block 511) as a foreground
task. In one embodiment, the email is presented on the desktop
already opened. Once the agent has determined that he or she is
ready to handle the email, the email escalator method 500 receives
an agent-ready event from the agent desktop (block 513) and sends
that event to the email subsystem at block 515. The agent workflow
will not assign the agent to any other contacts until the email is
handled. In another embodiment, the email escalator method 500
instructs the email subsystem to identify an email that is close to
being escalated and to give the agent a visual clue, such as color
or a special icon, that the email must be handled immediately.
A component acting as the email subsystem 217 executes a email
subsystem method 520 to perform the functions illustrated in FIG.
5D. The email subsystem method 520 receives the email information
from the email escalator at block 521 and invokes the workflow
logic 207 at block 523. In one embodiment, when the email subsystem
method 520 receives the email information at block 523, it creates
the contact record for the email and marks it as escalated. In an
alternate embodiment, the email manager a contact record is created
for each email received at the contact center and the email
subsystem method 520 marks the existing contact record as escalated
at block 523.
The workflow requests an agent from the email subsystem at block
525. The email subsystem method 520 requests the agent from the
dynamic ACD at block 527. When an agent is allocated to the
contact, the agent identifier is returned from the dynamic ACD to
the email subsystem method 520, which, in turn, at block 529
returns the agent identifier to the email escalator to cause the
contact to be routed to be identified agent. The email subsystem
method 520 injects a handle-agent event into the email workflow at
block 531 in response to receiving the agent-ready event from the
email escalator. In one embodiment, the email subsystem method 520
generates events which create and update contact information
regarding the escalated email in the database 231.
A method 540 for a contact workflow for an escalated email is
illustrated in FIG. 5C. When the escalated email workflow 540
begins, it requests an agent from the email system at block 541,
which causes the events previously described to occur. When the
escalated email workflow 540 receives the handle-agent event at
block 543, the workflow sends the email to the agent desktop at
block 545 via the agent subsystem 219. As the agent is working with
the escalated email message, the agent may generate events that
cause the escalated email workflow 540 to perform certain
functions, including updating the contact record, represented
generally at block 547. When the agent is finished with the
escalated email message, the escalated email workflow 540 sends a
left-session event to the agent subsystem at block 549.
FIG. 3C illustrates the escalation that is performed for a contact
that initially appears at the contact center 200 through a
self-service Web site 341. By choosing to send an email, the
contact can be escalated (represented by arrow 349) through the
email manager into a deferred email contact 343. Alternatively, if
the contact clicks on a collaboration/chat button, it is escalated
by a combination of the workflow engine and the dynamic ACD
(represented by arrow 347) into an immediate assistance contact
345. As the sending of email is handled by the conventional email
system, the escalation from a self-service contact 341 into a
deferred email contact 343 is not further discussed.
Turning now to FIGS. 6A C, the escalation of a contact from a
self-service Web contact 341 to an immediate assistance
collaboration contact 345 is described beginning with collaboration
router method 600 performed by the collaboration router 325. The
collaboration router method 600 receives the contact information
from the web server (block 601) and sends the contact information
to the collaboration subsystem 215 (block 603) to have an agent
allocated to the contact. When the collaboration router method 600
receives the agent identifier from the collaboration subsystem at
block 605, then routes the collaboration session to the agent
desktop for the identified agent (block 607) via the collaboration
server.
A collaboration subsystem method 620 executed by the collaboration
subsystem 215 is next described in conjunction with FIG. 6D. The
collaboration subsystem method 620 receives the contact information
from the collaboration router at block 621 and invokes a
collaboration workflow for the contact at block 623. A contact
record for the collaboration contact is also created at block 623.
The collaboration subsystem method 620 receives an agent request
from the collaboration workflow (block 625) and requests an agent
from the dynamic ACD (block 627). When the dynamic ACD returns the
agent identifier to the collaboration subsystem method 620, it
returns the agent identifier to the collaboration router (block
629) for routing the collaboration session to the appropriate
agent's desktop. The collaboration subsystem method 620 also
injects a handle-agent event into the collaboration workflow at
block 623. Events resulting from the collaboration session are
injected into the workflow by the collaboration subsystem method
620 when the session terminates (block 633). In one embodiment, the
collaboration subsystem method 620 generates events which create
and update contact information regarding the collaboration session
in the database 231.
Turning now to FIG. 6C, a collaboration workflow method 640 that is
executed by the workflow logic 207 as a collaboration workflow for
a contact is described. When the collaboration workflow method 640
begins, it requests an agent from the collaboration subsystem at
block 641. The collaboration workflow method 640 receives a
handle-agent event from the collaboration subsystem at block 643.
The handle-agent event informs the workflow that the agent is now
ready for the collaboration session and collaboration workflow
method 640 sends the contact information to the agent desktop
(block 645) via the agent 219 subsystem. The collaboration workflow
method 640 updates the contact record with the events received from
the collaboration subsystem when the session is terminated (block
647). The collaboration workflow method 640 also sends a
left-session event into the agent subsystem at block 649.
The methods used by the multimedia contact center 200 for agents
are now described with reference to the flowcharts in FIGS. 7A C.
FIG. 7A illustrates an agent desktop method 700 that presents tasks
on an agent desktop 229. The agent desktop method 700 receives a
login event when an agent logs into the contact center (block 701).
The agent desktop method 700 sends the agent information into the
agent subsystem 219 at block 703. As part of their processing, the
agent subsystem 219 and the agent workflow 207 make the agent
available for contacts. The agent desktop method 700 waits for
messages from the agent and the agent subsystem at block 705. If
the agent desktop method 700 receives the routed contacts (block
707), it passes the contact information onto to appropriate
underlying system (such as the email system and the collaboration
system) at block 709. When the appropriate system has terminated
the contact, the agent desktop method 700 receives a wrap-up event
from the agent subsystem (block 711), which causes it to put the
agent into a wrap-up state (block 713). The agent desktop method
700 sends an end-of-wrap up event to the agent subsystem at block
715 when the agent has finished the contact wrap up procedures.
The agent desktop method 700 also handles the transition of the
agent into various states such as break, logout, etc. If the agent
is requesting a break (block 717), the agent desktop method 700
sends the break request to the agent subsystem (block 719), which
forwards it onto the agent workflow for a decision (as described
further below). If the break request is allowed (block 721), the
agent desktop method 700 waits for the agent to return from break
and sends an off-break event to the agent subsystem to inform it
that the agent is again available (block 723).
If the agent is logging out (block 725), the agent desktop method
700 sends an agent-logout event into the agent subsystem at block
729. All other messages are sent to the agent subsystem at block
727. One of skill in the art will readily understand the processing
necessary to transition the agent into other states without further
illustration.
Referring now to FIG. 7B, an agent subsystem method 730 executed by
the component acting as the agent subsystem 219 is described. The
agent information is received from the agent desktop at block 731
when the agent logs into the contact center. The agent subsystem
method 730 invokes an agent workflow from the workflow engine 201
at block 733 and waits for events from the agent workflow and the
agent desktop 229 (block 735). If the event is a contact request
from the agent workflow (block 736), the agent subsystem method 730
checks to see if there is a pending break request from the agent
desktop (block 737). If not, the agent subsystem method 730
requests a contact for the agent from the dynamic ACD at block 739.
Once the dynamic ACD returns a contact, the agent subsystem method
730 injects a handle contact event into the agent workflow (block
740). When the agent or the contact terminates the call or the
session, the agent subsystem method 730 receives a left-session
event from the corresponding contact workflow, i.e., the voice
workflow, the email workflow, or the collaboration workflow, at
block 741, and injects the event into the agent workflow at block
742. The agent subsystem method 730, in conjunction with the
current session or call, also receives a wrap-up event from the
agent workflow (block 743), which it sends to the agent desktop
(block 745). When the agent desktop has determined that the agent
is completely wrapped up the contact, the agent subsystem method
730 receives the end-wrap-up event from the agent desktop at block
746, and in turn, injects the event into the agent workflow at
block 747. If a break request is pending (block 737), the agent
subsystem method 730 waits until the agent workflow makes a
decision on the break request (block 748). If allowed, the agent
subsystem method 730 waits at block 735 for an off-break event from
the agent desktop. If not allowed, the agent subsystem method 730
requests a contact from the dynamic ACD at block 739.
If the agent subsystem method 730 receives a break request from the
agent desktop (block 749), it sends an on-break event to the agent
workflow (block 770) and waits for a response, which it forwards to
the agent desktop at block 751. If the break is allowed by the
agent workflow (block 752), the agent subsystem method 730 requests
the agent be removed from the agent list by the dynamic ACD at
block 753 and waits a block 735 for an off-break event from the
agent desktop. When the off-break event is received (block 754),
the agent subsystem method 720 injects the off-break event into the
agent workflow at block 755 to cause the workflow to request a
contact for the now-available agent.
If a logout event is received (block 756), the agent subsystem
method 730 requests the agent be removed from the agent list by the
dynamic ACD (block 759) and injects a logout event into the agent
workflow (block 760). The handling of other events is illustrated
generically at block 757, where the event is injected into the
agent workflow, and at block 758, where the agent subsystem method
730 forwards any response received from the agent workflow to the
agent desktop. One of skill in the art will readily understand the
processing necessary to handle different types of events without
further illustration.
An agent workflow method 770 for an agent workflow is now described
in conjunction with FIG. 7C. The agent workflow method 770 begins
by requesting a contact for the agent from the agent subsystem at
block 771. The agent workflow method 770 then waits for agent
events at block 773. If a handle-contact event is received (block
753), the agent has been allocated to a contact and the agent
workflow method 770 waits for a left-session event from the
corresponding contact workflow that indicates the contact session
has terminated (block 777). When the left-session event arrives,
the agent workflow method 770 sends a wrap-up event to the agent
subsystem at block 778 and waits for an end-wrap-up event that
indicates the agent is now available (block 781). The agent
workflow method 770 loops back to block 771 to request a new
contact for the agent.
If an on-break event is received by the agent workflow method 770
(block 761), the agent workflow method 770 determines if the break
can be allowed based on the status of the call center (block 785).
In either case, a message is sent to the agent subsystem to notify
the agent desktop of the decision (block 785). If the break is
allowed (block 785), the agent workflow waits for an off-break
event to be received at block 786. If the break is not allowed, the
agent workflow method 770 loops to block 773 to wait for a
contact.
If an agent logout event is received by the agent workflow method
770 (block 779), the agent workflow method 770 terminates. In an
embodiment not shown, the agent logout event is a request that can
be denied based on the state of the contact center, such as when
the contact center is overloaded, or allowed at an appropriate
time, such as when the agent workflow requests a new contact. All
other events are handled by the agent workflow method 770 as
generically illustrated by block 791. One of skill in the art will
readily understand the processing necessary to handle different
types of events within an agent workflow without further
illustration.
It will be appreciated that the workflows described in conjunction
with the flow charts 4C, 5C, 6C and 7C are simplified examples of
the actions available through the workflow logic 207 and are not
intended to limit the invention to only those actions and sequences
illustrated. A detailed description of one embodiment of the
workflow logic 207 and the workflow actions is given in the next
section.
In addition, one of skill in the art will readily conceive of
alternate logic flows with more or fewer processes or different
processes that achieve the results of these method and such
alternatives are considered within the scope of the invention. For
example, instead of having the contact workflows inject the
left-session events directly into the agent workflow, in one
alternate embodiment, the contact workflow sends a contact-ended
event to the contact subsystem and thence to the appropriate media
router, which causes the router to send the left-session event to
the agent subsystem for injection into the agent workflow. In
another alternate embodiment, the termination of the contact
workflow causes the contact subsystem to send the contact-ended
event to the appropriate media router, causing the router to send
the left-session event to the agent subsystem and thence to the
agent workflow.
The particular methods performed by components of one embodiment of
the digital multimedia contact center of the present invention have
been described in terms of media-specific processing diagrams and
flowcharts. The methods performed by a voice router, a voice
subsystem, and workflow logic for a voice contact have been shown
by reference to flowcharts 4A C including all the acts from 401
until 407, from 421 until 443, and from 451 until 475,
respectively. The methods performed by an email escalator, an email
subsystem, and workflow logic for an escalated email contact have
been shown by reference to flowcharts 5A C including all the acts
from 501 until 515, from 521 until 531, and from 541 until 549,
respectively. The methods performed by a collaboration router, a
collaboration subsystem, and workflow logic for a collaboration
contact have been shown by reference to flowcharts 6A C including
all the acts from 601 until 607, from 621 until 633, and from 641
until 649, respectively. The methods performed by an agent desktop,
an agent subsystem and workflow logic for an agent have been shown
by reference to flowcharts 7A C including all the acts from 701
until 729, from 731 until 760, and from 771 until 791,
respectively.
Internet Contact Center (iCC) Implementation
In this section of the detailed description, a particular
implementation of the invention is described. Companies subscribe
to the services of the iCC to manage their customer contacts. The
iCC is sited remotely from the agents for the subscriber, who may
be at various locations. The agent desktops 229 are Web
browser-based that connect to the agent subsystem(s) 219 in the
remote iCC. The subscriber's customers contact the iCC directly
through the Internet or POTS and are then routed to the appropriate
agent desktop through a virtual private network. The browser-based
agent desktops enables the use of various plug-in applets that
extend the basic capabilities of the agent desktop without
extensive re-programming. Additionally, a combination Java
applet/servlet can be used to implement the desktop manager
described previously.
Messaging
Communication between the workflow engine 201 and the media routers
221/agent desktop 229 is handled through a set of interfaces using
Java RMI (remote method invocation). Three generic interfaces are
provided in a messaging library. All contact workflow subsystems,
e.g., voice subsystem 213, collaboration subsystem 215 and email
subsystem 217, are required to implement at least a generic contact
service interface, such as "ContactWorkflowServiceInterface"
described below. All agent workflow subsystems, e.g. the agent
subsystem 219, are required to implement at least a generic agent
service interface, such as "AgentWorkflowServiceInterface"
described below Each media router 221 is required to implement at
least a generic media router interface, such as
"MediaRouterInterface" described below. New interfaces specific to
the service requested can be defined that inherit from existing
interfaces. Thus, for example, a voice service interface implements
the generic contact service interface along with interfaces for
telephony commands. Global variables pass information between the
workflow subsystems 205 and the workflow logic 207. The global
variables contain the values needed by the workflow logic 207 in
the context of a particular workflow, and requests made by the
workflow logic 207 to the workflow subsystems 205 through various
workflow steps described further below.
A media router 221 uses the ContactWorkflowServiceInterface of a
particular contact workflow subsystem to 1) start a contact
workflow and receive a contact identifier for the workflow, 2)
inject an event into an existing workflow identified by a contact
identifier, and 3) determine if the contact workflow subsystem is
handling a specified contact. To start a workflow for a contact, a
media router 221 invokes a "startWorkflow" method in the
ContactWorkflowServiceInterface of the desired contact workflow
subsystem, passing in an identifier for the media router interface
of the media router (client), and the attributes of the contact
(attributes), and receives an identifier for the newly created
contact workflow in return (contactID), e.g., startWorkflow(client,
contactID, attributes). To inject an event into an existing
workflow, a media router 221 invokes an "injectEvent" method in the
ContactWorkflowServiceInterface of the appropriate contact workflow
subsystem, identifying the contact workflow (contactID) and the
event to be injected into the workflow (event), e.g.,
injectEvent(contactID, event). To determine if a particular contact
workflow subsystem is handling a specific contact, a media router
calls a "handlesContact" method in the
ContactWorkflowServiceInterface of the contact workflow subsystem,
passing in the identifier of the contact workflow (contactID) and
receives a boolean value in return, e.g.,
handlesContact(contactId).
An agent desktop 229 uses the AgentWorkflowServiceInterface to 1)
start an agent workflow and receive an agent identifier for the
workflow, 2) inject an event into an existing workflow identified
by an agent identifier, and 3) determine if a particular agent
workflow subsystem is managing a specified agent. As described
previously, when multiple agent workflow subsystem are present, an
agent desktop is assigned to one of the agent workflow subsystems
by a service manager. To start an agent workflow, an agent desktop
invokes a "startWorkflow" method in
theAgentWorkflowServiceInterface of the appropriate agent workflow
subsystem, passing in the attributes of the agent (attributes), and
receives an identifier for the newly created agent workflow in
return (agentID), e.g., startWorkflow(agentID, attributes). To
inject an event into an existing workflow, an agent desktop invokes
an "injectEvent" method in the AgentWorkflowServiceInterface of the
appropriate agent workflow subsystem, identifying the agent
workflow (agentID) and the event to be injected into the workflow
(event), e.g., injectEvent(agentID, event). To determine if a
particular agent workflow subsystem is handling a specific agent,
an agent desktop calls a "handlesAgent" method in the
AgentWorkflowServiceInterface of the agent workflow subsystem,
passing in the identifier of the agent workflow (agentID) and
receives a boolean value in return, e.g.,
handlesAgent(agentId).
The MediaRouterInterface allows contact workflow subsystems to
route contacts to the agents allocated by the dynamic ACD and to
terminate a contact session. To route a contact to an agent, a
contact workflow subsystem invokes an "assignContactToAgent" method
in the MediaRouterInterface of the appropriate media router,
passing in the workflow identifier for the contact (contactID) and
the workflow identifier for the agent (agentID) and receiving a
boolean in return that indicates whether the routing was
successful, e.g., assignContactToAgent(contactID, agentID). To
terminate a contact session, a contact workflow subsystem invokes a
"terminateContact" method in the iCCMediaRouterInterface of the
appropriate media router, passing in the workflow identifier for
the contact (contactID), e.g., terminateContact(contactID).
Database Unification Layer
The database unification layer 261 implements a unified schema
consisting of information replicated from a number of different
sources including the databases used by the third-party systems,
and the internal iCC database 231 as described previously. Each
different source is defined in a sub-schema including: Billing
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Entitlement (Billing option,
maximum agents, maximum contacts, . . . ) Provisioning (Agents,
User IDs, Passwords, Classifications, Skills, Proficiencies, . . .
) Business Logic (Priority Expressions, Attributes, Stored
Procedures, . . . ) Active State (Agent State, Session State,
Contact State, Contact Center State, Customer State).
The database unification layer provides access to the information
in the various databases through Java classes, such as CRM,
Provisioning, Entitlement, Rules, Contact Detail Record (CDR),
Contact Center State.
The unified schema is synchronized with the vendor-specific sources
by a set of database triggers. For instance, many conventional
email systems use event handlers that watch for messages entering
and changing state, and create and update CDR records as necessary,
e.g. when an email message is responded to or forwarded to another
agent. Updating one of the sources with information in the unified
schema is accomplished through the Java classes.
One embodiment of a data structure 800 for a CDR is illustrated in
FIG. 8A. The contact represented by the CDR 800 is identified
through a contact ID field 801. The media type through which the
contact entered the iCC is specified in a media type field 803.
Assuming the contact has been classified, the classification for
the contact is stored in a contact class ID field 805. If the iCC
is implemented in conjunction with a standard customer relationship
management system, the CRM case identifier is stored in a case ID
field 807 to allow tracking of the contact. The agent assigned to
handle the contact is identified through an assigned agent ID field
809. One or more fields 811 collectively record the history of the
contact as it is process in the iCC. Each field 811 contains a
contact state 813 and a timestamp 815. Thus, the change in state of
the contact can be tracked chronologically for the life of the
contact. Exemplary contact states used by the iCC are shown in
Table 1 below and it will be appreciated that more or fewer states
may be used.
TABLE-US-00001 TABLE 1 iCC Contact States State Comment Initially
Created Escalated Being Addressed On Hold Archived after wrap-up In
Wrapup Terminated no agent assigned Abandoned contact quits before
being helped Queued Demoted
One embodiment of a data structure 820 for an agent record is
illustrated in FIG. 8B. The agent represented by the agent record
820 is identified by an agent ID field 821. Assuming the agent has
been classified, the classification for the agent is stored in an
agent class ID field 823. The contact identifier for the current
contact the agent is handling is stored in an assigned contact ID
field 825. One or more fields 827 collectively record the history
of the agent while he or she is logged into the iCC. Each field 827
contains an agent state 829 and a timestamp 831. Thus, the change
in state of the agent can be tracked chronologically during the
workday of the agent. The agent states used by the iCC are shown in
Table 2 below and it will be appreciated that more or fewer states
may be used.
TABLE-US-00002 TABLE 2 iCC Agent States State Comment Logged Out On
Break Available Logged in and not assigned a contact Busy Wrap Up
Post-contact processing
Soft ACD
The iCC uses a software-implemented ACD to manage the allocation of
all contacts and agents. The Soft ACD exists as a set of stored
procedures in the contact center database that refer to special
database tables used as the unordered lists of available agents and
waiting contacts. The unordered lists may be further logically
subdivided, e.g., by classification.
The Soft ACD also loads business logic and provisioning information
(described below) when required. Each classification within the
organization (e.g., Sales, Support, Customer Service, etc.) is
associated with a particular set of business logic. If any of this
information changes, the Soft ACD is notified, it reloads this
information, and immediately applies the new information to the
iCC. While it is running, the Soft ACD maintains the state
(classifications, requirements, and attributes) of each entry in
the lists.
When a running workflow requests an agent or contact, the
appropriate subsystem passes the request onto the Soft ACD as
previously described. The Soft ACD determines the best match for
the agent or contact by filtering the opposite list on
classification and in light of any requirements specified in the
request, and prioritizing the filtered entries using one or more
"priority expressions." Each priority expression contains a set of
weighted contact/agent attributes that produce a priority from 0 to
100 when an entry is evaluated. The attributes and their weights
exist as classes in the business logic sub-schema in the database
unification layer and are described next. It should be noted that
the Soft ACD dynamically performs the filtering and prioritizing
anew for each request for a match.
While a contact or agent is waiting on a list, the requesting
workflow is free to continue executing, but when an actual
allocation occurs, a resource allocator notifies the corresponding
subsystem, which then interrupts the requesting workflow to route
the contact.
Business Logic
The business logic used by the iCC for a subscriber is defined
through an email manager, a workflow editor, and an administrative
interface. The email manager is used to create email rules that
route email contacts into various predefined mailboxes. These rules
may reference text in the from, to, subject and body of the message
as well as make database queries. Mailbox queues are separate
message areas maintained by the email server. Agents retrieve
messages from these queues. Individual queues can be set up, e.g.,
for each agent or for separate products, and additions or deletions
to the existing set of queues can be made as necessary. For
example, the subscriber could initially define one queue per
product per classification ("SalesPrinters" or "SupportPrinters")
and add more as business grows. The system administrator grants
access to these queues on a per agent basis. An additional queue is
defined for escalated email messages as previously described. After
defining the queues, the rules which route messages into those
queues are defined. Rules can also be specified that demote certain
email messages into self-service by routing them to the
auto-responder function.
The workflow editor defines a workflow for handling a contact or an
agent. A subscriber may defined any number of agent and contact
workflows through the workflow editor. For example, each agent
might have a particular workflow based on the agent's login
identifier. The workflows and their related invocation information
are stored for reference by the workflow engine 201 in an LDAP
directory server or other directory structure that defines
hierarchical directory entries. For example, a subscriber might
define the following hierarchy in which the entries at levels (a)
and (b) are the invocation information for the workflows specified
at levels (i).
TABLE-US-00003 1) asubscriber.com a) iCC i) configurations (1)
wfVoice (a) 1234 (i) Workflow "SalesContact.WFE" (b) 1000 (i)
Workflow "SupportContact.WFE" (2) wfEmail (a) sales@asubscriber.com
(i) Workflow "SalesContact.WFE" (b) support@asubscriber.com (i)
Workflow "SupportContact.WFE" (3) wfWebCollaboration (a)
http://asubscriber.com/sales (i) Workflow "SalesContact.WFE" (b)
http://asubscriber.com/support (i) Workflow
"SupportContact.WFE"
The administrative interface uses the classes in the business logic
sub-schema to define logins, passwords, agent skills and
proficiencies, call center classifications, service level
objectives, email overdue/escalation thresholds, priority
expressions, attributes, attribute weightings, etc. When the
administrative interface starts up, it reads the system and
subscriber business logic from the database using the business
logic classes. When entities are changed, the relevant data is
written back to the database through these same business logic
classes. The administrative interface presents the subscriber with
various graphical user interface (GUI) screen to assist the user in
defining the subscriber business logic.
Through one of the GUI screens, the subscriber sets up the call
center classifications, which define gross distinctions between
contacts or between agents. The same set of classifications is used
for both contacts and agents. Within a particular classification,
the subscriber defines service level objectives for each media
type. Service level objectives are defined as the percentage of
contacts of a particular media type which must be handled in a
specific time. Thus, the GUI screen for defining service level
objectives presents the user with a list of the media types, an
input area for a percentage value, and an input area for an elapsed
time value.
Each agent has a set of skills and a proficiency within each skill,
which are specified and modified through the administrative
interface. When a contact requests an agent, certain
skills/proficiencies may be specified as contact requirements. The
requirements may also include aging information for relaxing those
requirements after a certain amount of time has elapsed without the
contact being helped. For instance, the aging information might say
that for the first 30 seconds a particular voice call will accept a
proficiency of 5 for a particular skill, after 30 seconds a
proficiency of 2 will be acceptable. This is referred to as "aging"
a requirement.
The iCC comes pre-configured with a number of system defined
attributes including: TimeInQueue--the time a contact has been
waiting for a resource (available through a database stored
procedure and calculated on the fly by the Software ACD.)
IsEmail--is this contact an email? IsVoice--is this contact a voice
call? IsCollaboration--is this contact a web collaboration?
MediaServiceLevel--percentage of contacts of this media type
handled within the specified media-specific service objective
LastAgent--User ID of last agent this customer talked to.
Subscriber-defined attributes that determine a contact-agent match
are specified through the administrative interface. Attribute
characteristics include name, type (Call Center, Agent, Contact),
value type (numeric, symbolic), values, default values, value
normalization, and corresponding stored procedure. The subscriber
defines the set of attributes using a GUI screen that prompts the
user for input by displaying permitted choices or through visual
clues, such as a choice of normalization curves. The stored
procedure for an attribute calculates a value for the attribute
when the attribute is used in a priority expression. The stored
procedures can have been previously created or may be created when
the attribute is created.
The agent and contact priority expressions are created through a
graphical user interface that allows an administrator to
drag-and-drop desired attributes into an expression and set their
weighting through slider bars. There is one priority expression for
agents and one for contacts within each classification. When a new
priority expression is specified, a new stored procedure is
generated in a database scripting language, such as_PL/SQL,
compiled, and added to the database. One exemplary priority
expression is shown in the following pseudocode:
For each attribute: Call the attribute's stored procedure passing
ContactID and CustomerID; If value returned is -1, use the
attribute's default value; If the attribute is symbolic, convert to
a normalized value; Multiply result by specified weighting and add
this to the accumulated total.
For a more specific example, assume a subscriber specified two
classifications "Sales" and "Support" and a contact attribute
called "BusinessValue" (i.e., the value of this contact to the
subscriber's business). For the Sales classification, the
subscriber created a contact priority expression of:
BusinessValue*0.2+TimeInQueue*0.1+IsEmail*0.1+IsVoice*0.4+IsCollaboration-
*0.2 and for the Support classification, a contact priority
expression of:
BusinessValue*0.1+TimeInQueue*0.1+IsEmail*0.1+IsVoice*0.6+IsCollaboration-
*0.1.
When the Soft ACD is prioritizing the waiting contacts for
assignment to an agent, it evaluates the expression for each
contact of the appropriate classification by calling the stored
procedure associated with the BusinessValue attribute and
multiplying the value returned by 0.2 for a Sales contact or 0.1
for a Support contact. The weighted business value of the contact
is then added to the appropriately weighted values of the system
defined attributes to calculate the priority for the contact.
The Soft ACD can prioritize each agent/contact before deciding on
the appropriate match or alternately may employ an optimization
scheme in which the first agent/contact that reaches a
pre-determined priority value is chosen.
Provisioning Information
The underlying components of iCC must set up and configured before
the center is ready for operation. The email manager allows
administrators to define agents, agent passwords, mailboxes, as
well as the rules by which contacts are routed to these mailboxes.
An administration interface to the collaboration server is used to
define agents, agent passwords, and agent extensions. The telephony
server is set up by creating dial plans and associating phone
numbers with applications, and agents with phone extensions.
Workflow Engine
The iCC uses workflows to process contact, manage agents, and
control the overall contact center functions. Workflow steps are
the basic building blocks of control in the iCC workflow engine.
The workflow steps available to a designer depend on the type of
workflow being developed. For example, voice workflow steps include
answer, collect digits, and record. Exemplary agent workflow steps
include allow break, handle contact, and wrap up. Some workflow
steps are applicable to all contact workflows, such as classify
contact, request agent, and deliver contact. Control steps, e.g.
end, wait, and if, are available for all workflows, along with a
send email step. Additional steps for the contact and agent
workflows will be readily apparent to one of skill in the art.
Instead of hard-coded scripts typically used to implement
workflows, the iCC workflow engine 900 dynamically creates a script
for a workflow from two files as described in conjunction with FIG.
9A. Definitions for prototype nodes 911, 913, 915, 917, 919 are
stored in a template file 903. Each node is associated with
workflow code that implements a high-level, compound script action,
such as "play menu with interruptible prompts" or "play music until
an agent is available," that are available to the workflow engine
900. The script actions are built from workflow steps. For ease of
explanation, the script actions represented in FIG. 9A are simple,
single commands, e.g., node A 911 represents the function "if(x
boolean y)," where "x," "boolean," and "y" are parameters that will
be replaced by values specified by an instance of the node A 911.
It will be appreciated that the invention is not limited by the
example or by the workflow steps shown herein.
When in configuration mode 901, the workflow engine 900 (or a
supporting application) enables a user, such as a system
administrator, to create a workflow 905 by selecting the
appropriate nodes from the template file 903, specifying the
appropriate values for the parameters in the script command, and
linking the nodes together to form a directed graph that represents
the desired workflow. Thus, for example, when node A' 921 is
executed, the function "if(number<10)" is evaluated, with a true
result causing edge 931 to be followed to execute node B' 923 and a
false result causing edge 933 to be followed to execute node C'
925. A configuration file 907 is created from the directed graph
and specifies the structure for the workflow 905. The configuration
file 907 contains an identifier for each corresponding prototype
node, along with the values, edge information and other settings
(configuration data) associated with each node in the graph. It
will be appreciated that any of the common input methodologies used
to obtain user input can be employed to create the directed graph
for the workflow, including a graphical user interface that gives
the user drag-and-drop capabilities to allow the placement and
rearrangement of nodes and edges, and dialog boxes that request the
appropriate parameters.
When the workflow 905 is to be executed by the workflow engine 900
in run-time mode 909, the workflow engine 900 references the
configuration file 907 and reconstructs the directed graph for the
workflow 905 in memory by merging the corresponding prototype nodes
from the template file 903 with the configuration data associated
with the nodes in the configuration file 907. The workflow engine
initiates a new thread of execution to execute the workflow script
represented by the directed graph. Thus, the workflow engine 900
abstracts out the code and connectors when the user creates a
workflow and subsequently reconstructs the workflow from the
abstractions when it is to be executed.
Unlike typical workflow implementations, all iCC workflow steps can
execute asynchronously by storing its result to a prioritized
message queue in its thread of execution. Additionally, step may
spawn another execution thread to create a multithreaded workflow.
Similar classes of steps may share one queue with one execution
thread for all requests of that type from a single workflow or
across workflows. As previously described, various workflow steps
request a service from a subsystem. The subsystems inject service
events into the workflow by placing event notifications in the
message queue. The retrieval of messages from the queue is
implemented using three special workflow steps: RegisterEvent,
UnRegisterEvent, and GetMessage.
RegisterEvent and UnRegisterEvent modify handlers for events. By
default, an event is handled in-line in the node that caused the
event. RegisterEvent specifies a target node that will handle the
event instead (referred to as "chaining"). Handlers are stacks:
when a handler is registered using RegisterEvent, the target node
for that event is pushed onto the stack; when UnRegisterEvent is
called, the stack is popped.
The GetMessage step fetches a message from the queue. When the
message is an event notification for which a registration (via
RegisterEvent) has been made, the workflow engine branches to the
target node to handle the event. If the event was not explicitly
registered, the current node is pushed onto the stack to handle the
event.
An example of the asynchronous processing of the workflow steps is
illustrated in FIG. 9B. A workflow 904 begins at node AA 941. As
part of its code, node AA 941 requests (arrow 951) that the
database subsystem retrieve a record from the unified database 957.
When the record is retrieved, the database subsystem stores (arrow
953) an event notification in a message queue 959. Instead of
waiting for the database subsystem to retrieve the record, the node
AA 941 registers itself as the target node to handle the event. The
workflow continues processing, executing node BB 943 and node CC
945, before reaching node DD 947, which requests (arrow 955)
messages from a queue 959. Assuming that the event notification is
in the queue 959, it will be returned (arrow 955) to node DD 947,
which in turns, returns (edge 967) the event notification to node
AA 941 for handling. Once node AA 941 has received the record, it
passes (edge 969) it onto node EE 949 for further processing.
In one embodiment, the template and configuration files are XML
documents, with the nodes represented by XML elements, and the code
and configuration information stored as XML attributes for the
corresponding XML elements. The code and configuration information
are written in the JPython scripting language. A JPython-aware
execution proxy merges the information from the template and
configuration files, and provides an interface between the thread
of execution for the workflow and the actual workflow steps.
Because the execution proxy insulates the thread of execution from
the workflow steps, steps may use multiple scripting languages
simultaneously, allowing the developer of the prototype nodes to
chose the best code to perform a given function.
Operating Environment
The following description of FIGS. 10A B is intended to provide an
overview of computer hardware and other operating components
suitable for implementing the invention, but is not intended to
limit the applicable environments. One of skill in the art will
immediately appreciate that the invention can be practiced with
other computer system configurations, including hand-held devices,
multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based or programmable
consumer electronics, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframe
computers, and the like. The invention can also be practiced in
distributed computing environments where tasks are performed by
remote processing devices that are linked through a communications
network.
FIG. 10A shows several computer systems 1 that are coupled together
through a network 3, such as the Internet. The term "Internet" as
used herein refers to a network of networks which uses certain
protocols, such as the TCP/IP protocol, and possibly other
protocols such as the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) for
hypertext markup language (HTML) documents that make up the World
Wide Web (web). The physical connections of the Internet and the
protocols and communication procedures of the Internet are
well-known to those of skill in the art. Access to the Internet 3
is typically provided by Internet service providers (ISP), such as
the ISPs 5 and 7. Users on client systems, such as client computer
systems 21, 25, 35, and 37 obtain access to the Internet through
the Internet service providers, such as ISPs 5 and 7. Access to the
Internet allows users of the client computer systems to exchange
information, receive and send e-mails, and view documents, such as
documents which have been prepared in the HTML format. These
documents are often provided by web servers, such as web server 9
which is considered to be "on" the Internet. Often these web
servers are provided by the ISPs, such as ISP 5, although a
computer system can be set up and connected to the Internet without
that system being also an ISP as is well known in the art.
The web server 9 is typically at least one computer system which
operates as a server computer system and is configured to operate
with the protocols of the World Wide Web and is coupled to the
Internet. Optionally, the web server 9 can be part of an ISP which
provides access to the Internet for client systems. The web server
9 is shown coupled to the server computer system 11 which itself is
coupled to web content 10, which can be considered a form of a
media database. It will be appreciated that while two computer
systems 9 and 11 are shown in FIG. 10A, the web server system 9 and
the server computer system 11 can be one computer system having
different software components providing the web server
functionality and the server functionality provided by the server
computer system 11 which will be described further below.
Client computer systems 21, 25, 35, and 37 can each, with the
appropriate web browsing software, view HTML pages provided by the
web server 9. The ISP 5 provides Internet connectivity to the
client computer system 21 through the modem interface 23 which can
be considered part of the client computer system 21. The client
computer system can be a personal computer system, a network
computer, a Web TV system, or other such computer system.
Similarly, the ISP 7 provides Internet connectivity for client
systems 25, 35, and 37, although as shown in FIG. 10A, the
connections are not the same for these three computer systems.
Client computer system 25 is coupled through a modem interface 27
while client computer systems 35 and 37 are part of a LAN. While
FIG. 10A shows the interfaces 23 and 27 as generically as a
"modem," it will be appreciated that each of these interfaces can
be an analog modem, ISDN modem, cable modem, satellite transmission
interface (e.g. "Direct PC"), or other interfaces for coupling a
computer system to other computer systems. Client computer systems
35 and 37 are coupled to a LAN 33 through network interfaces 39 and
41, which can be Ethernet network or other network interfaces. The
LAN 33 is also coupled to a gateway computer system 31 which can
provide firewall and other Internet related services for the local
area network. This gateway computer system 31 is coupled to the ISP
7 to provide Internet connectivity to the client computer systems
35 and 37. The gateway computer system 31 can be a conventional
server computer system. Also, the web server system 9 can be a
conventional server computer system.
Alternatively, as well-known, a server computer system 43 can be
directly coupled to the LAN 33 through a network interface 45 to
provide files 47 and other services to the clients 35, 37, without
the need to connect to the Internet through the gateway system
31.
FIG. 10B shows one example of a conventional computer system that
can be used as a client computer system or a server computer system
or as a web server system. It will also be appreciated that such a
computer system can be used to perform many of the functions of an
Internet service provider, such as ISP 105. The computer system 51
interfaces to external systems through the modem or network
interface 53. It will be appreciated that the modem or network
interface 53 can be considered to be part of the computer system
51. This interface 53 can be an analog modem, ISDN modem, cable
modem, token ring interface, satellite transmission interface (e.g.
"Direct PC"), or other interfaces for coupling a computer system to
other computer systems. The computer system 51 includes a processor
55, which can be a conventional microprocessor such as an Intel
Pentium microprocessor or Motorola Power PC microprocessor. Memory
59 is coupled to the processor 55 by a bus 57. Memory 59 can be
dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and can also include static RAM
(SRAM). The bus 57 couples the processor 55 to the memory 59 and
also to non-volatile storage 65 and to display controller 61 and to
the input/output (I/O) controller 67. The display controller 61
controls in the conventional manner a display on a display device
63 which can be a cathode ray tube (CRT) or liquid crystal display.
The input/output devices 69 can include a keyboard, disk drives,
printers, a scanner, and other input and output devices, including
a mouse or other pointing device. The display controller 61 and the
I/O controller 67 can be implemented with conventional well known
technology. A digital image input device 71 can be a digital camera
which is coupled to an I/O controller 67 in order to allow images
from the digital camera to be input into the computer system 51.
The non-volatile storage 65 is often a magnetic hard disk, an
optical disk, or another form of storage for large amounts of data.
Some of this data is often written, by a direct memory access
process, into memory 59 during execution of software in the
computer system 51. One of skill in the art will immediately
recognize that the term "computer-readable medium" includes any
type of storage device that is accessible by the processor 55 and
also encompasses a carrier wave that encodes a data signal.
It will be appreciated that the computer system 51 is one example
of many possible computer systems which have different
architectures. For example, personal computers based on an Intel
microprocessor often have multiple buses, one of which can be an
input/output (I/O) bus for the peripherals and one that directly
connects the processor 55 and the memory .times.59 (often referred
to as a memory bus). The buses are connected together through
bridge components that perform any necessary translation due to
differing bus protocols.
Network computers are another type of computer system that can be
used with the present invention. Network computers do not usually
include a hard disk or other mass storage, and the executable
programs are loaded from a network connection into the memory 59
for execution by the processor 55. A Web TV system, which is known
in the art, is also considered to be a computer system according to
the present invention, but it may lack some of the features shown
in FIG. 10B, such as certain input or output devices. A typical
computer system will usually include at least a processor, memory,
and a bus coupling the memory to the processor.
It will also be appreciated that the computer system 51 is
controlled by operating system software which includes a file
management system, such as a disk operating system, which is part
of the operating system software. One example of an operating
system software with its associated file management system software
is the Windows family of operating systems from Microsoft
Corporation of Redmond, Wash., and the associated file management
systems. The file management system is typically stored in the
non-volatile storage 65 and causes the processor 55 to execute the
various acts required by the operating system to input and output
data and to store data in memory, including storing files on the
non-volatile storage 65.
CONCLUSION
A tiered service model providing escalation and de-escalation of
contacts in a multimedia digital contact center has been described.
Although specific embodiments have been illustrated and described
herein, it will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the
art that any arrangement which is calculated to achieve the same
purpose may be substituted for the specific embodiments shown. This
application is intended to cover any adaptations or variations of
the present invention.
The terminology used in this application with respect to networks
is meant to include all of network environments, including private
wide-area networks and local-area networks. Therefore, it is
manifestly intended that this invention be limited only by the
following claims and equivalents thereof.
APPENDIX A
William E. Alford, Reg. No. 37,764; Farzad E. Amini, Reg. No.
42,261; William Thomas Babbitt, Reg. No. 39,591; Carol F. Barry,
Reg. No. 41,600; Jordan Michael Becker, Reg. No. 39,602; Lisa N.
Benado, Reg. No. 39,995; Bradley J. Bereznak, Reg. No. 33,474;
Michael A. Bernadicou, Reg. No. 35,934; Roger W. Blakely, Jr., Reg.
No. 25,831; R. Alan Burnett, Reg. No. 46,149; Gregory D. Caldwell,
Reg. No. 39,926; Andrew C. Chen, Reg. No. 43,544; Thomas M.
Coester, Reg. No. 39,637; Donna Jo Coningsby, Reg. No. 41,684;
Florin Corie, Reg. No. 46,244; Dennis M. deGuzman, Reg. No. 41,702;
Stephen M. De Klerk, Reg. No. 46,503; Michael Anthony DeSanctis,
Reg. No. 39,957; Daniel M. De Vos, Reg. No. 37,813; Sanjeet Dutta,
Reg. No. 46,145; Matthew C. Fagan, Reg. No. 37,542; Tarek N. Fahmi,
Reg. No. 41,402; George Fountain, Reg. No. 37,374; James Y. Go,
Reg. No. 40,621; James A. Henry, Reg. No. 41,064; Libby N. Ho, Reg.
No. 46,774; Willmore F. Holbrow III, Reg. No. 41,845; Sheryl Sue
Holloway, Reg. No. 37,850; George W Hoover II, Reg. No. 32,992;
Eric S. Hyman, Reg. No. 30,139; William W. Kidd, Reg. No. 31,772;
Sang Hui Kim, Reg. No. 40,450; Walter T. Kim, Reg. No. 42,731; Eric
T. King, Reg. No. 44,188; George Brian Leavell, Reg. No. 45,436;
Kurt P. Leyendecker, Reg. No. 42,799; Gordon R. Lindeen III, Reg.
No. 33,192; Jan Carol Little, Reg. No. 41,181; Robert G. Litts,
Reg. No. 46,876; Joseph Lutz, Reg. No. 43,765; Michael J. Mallie,
Reg. No. 36,591; Andre L. Marais, under 37 C.F.R. .sctn. 10.9(b);
Paul A. Mendonsa, Reg. No. 42,879; Clive D. Menezes, Reg. No.
45,493; Chun M. Ng, Reg. No. 36,878; Thien T. Nguyen, Reg. No.
43,835; Thinh V. Nguyen, Reg. No. 42,034; Dennis A. Nicholls, Reg.
No. 42,036; Daniel E. Ovanezian, Reg. No. 41,236; Kenneth B. Paley,
Reg. No. 38,989; Gregg A. Peacock, Reg. No. 45,001; Marina
Portnova, Reg. No. 45,750; William F. Ryann, Reg. 44,313; James H.
Salter, Reg. No. 35,668; William W. Schaal, Reg. No. 39,018; James
C. Scheller, Reg. No. 31,195; Jeffrey Sam Smith, Reg. No. 39,377;
Maria McCormack Sobrino, Reg. No. 31,639; Stanley W. Sokoloff, Reg.
No. 25,128; Judith A. Szepesi, Reg. No. 39,393; Vincent P.
Tassinari, Reg. No. 42,179; Edwin H. Taylor, Reg. No. 25,129; John
F. Travis, Reg. No. 43,203; Joseph A. Twarowski, Reg. No. 42,191;
Tom Van Zandt, Reg. No. 43,219; Lester J. Vincent, Reg. No. 31,460;
Glenn E. Von Tersch, Reg. No. 41,364; John Patrick Ward, Reg. No.
40,216; Mark L. Watson, Reg. No. 46,322; Thomas C. Webster, Reg.
No. 46,154; and Norman Zafman, Reg. No. 26,250; my patent
attorneys, and Firasat Ali, Reg. No. 45,715; Justin M. Dillon, Reg.
No. 42,486; Thomas S. Ferrill, Reg. No. 42,532; and Raul Martinez,
Reg. No. 46,904, my patent agents, of BLAKELY, SOKOLOFF, TAYLOR
& ZAFMAN LLP, with offices located at 12400 Wilshire Boulevard,
7th Floor, Los Angeles, Calif. 90025, telephone (310) 207-3800, and
James R. Thein, Reg. No. 31,710, my patent attorney with full power
of substitution and revocation, to prosecute this application and
to transact all business in the Patent and Trademark Office
connected herewith.
APPENDIX B
Title 37, Code of Federal Regulations, Section 1.56 Duty to
Disclose Information Material to Patentability
(a) A patent by its very nature is affected with a public interest.
The public interest is best served, and the most effective patent
examination occurs when, at the time an application is being
examined, the Office is aware of and evaluates the teachings of all
information material to patentability. Each individual associated
with the filing and prosecution of a patent application has a duty
of candor and good faith in dealing with the Office, which includes
a duty to disclose to the Office all information known to that
individual to be material to patentability as defined in this
section. The duty to disclosure information exists with respect to
each pending claim until the claim is cancelled or withdrawn from
consideration, or the application becomes abandoned. Information
material to the patentability of a claim that is cancelled or
withdrawn from consideration need not be submitted if the
information is not material to the patentability of any claim
remaining under consideration in the application. There is no duty
to submit information which is not material to the patentability of
any existing claim. The duty to disclosure all information known to
be material to patentability is deemed to be satisfied if all
information known to be material to patentability of any claim
issued in a patent was cited by the Office or submitted to the
Office in the manner prescribed by .sctn..sctn.1.97(b) (d) and
1.98. However, no patent will be granted on an application in
connection with which fraud on the Office was practiced or
attempted or the duty of disclosure was violated through bad faith
or intentional misconduct. The Office encourages applicants to
carefully examine:
(1) Prior art cited in search reports of a foreign patent office in
a counterpart application, and
(2) The closest information over which individuals associated with
the filing or prosecution of a patent application believe any
pending claim patentably defines, to make sure that any material
information contained therein is disclosed to the Office.
(b) Under this section, information is material to patentability
when it is not cumulative to information already of record or being
made or record in the application, and
(1) It establishes, by itself or in combination with other
information, a prima facie case of unpatentability of a claim;
or
(2) It refutes, or is inconsistent with, a position the applicant
takes in:
(i) Opposing an argument of unpatentability relied on by the
Office, or
(ii) Asserting an argument of patentability.
A prima facie case of unpatentability is established when the
information compels a conclusion that a claim is unpatentable under
the preponderance of evidence, burden-of-proof standard, giving
each term in the claim its broadest reasonable construction
consistent with the specification, and before any consideration is
given to evidence which may be submitted in an attempt to establish
a contrary conclusion of patentability.
(c) Individuals associated with the filing or prosecution of a
patent application within the meaning of this section are:
(1) Each inventor named in the application;
(2) Each attorney or agent who prepares or prosecutes the
application; and
(3) Every other person who is substantively involved in the
preparation or prosecution of the application and who is associated
with the inventor, with the assignee or with anyone to whom there
is an obligation to assign the application.
(d) Individuals other than the attorney, agent or inventor may
comply with this section by disclosing information to the attorney,
agent, or inventor.
* * * * *
References